Liquid Damaged Phones

Liquid and iPhones don’t mix. The new iPhone 7 range are more water-proof than the older models, but even they are susceptible to damage caused by liquids. So whether you’ve dropped your iPhone in the bath, or the toilet, or somehow a cup of sugary tea was spilt over your iPhone, you need it fixed.

Is it covered by warranty?

If your iPhone is completely dead after being in liquid, you may be wondering if you can claim on your Apple Warranty. Apple have a very clear cut answer to that question though

Liquid damage to iPhone or iPod isn‘t covered by warranty

Service for the liquid damage to an iPhone or iPod isn’t covered by the Apple one-year limited warranty or an AppleCare Protection Plan (APP).

If liquid damages an iPhone or iPod (for example, coffee or a soft drink), the service for the liquid damage isn’t covered by the Apple one-year limited warranty or an AppleCare Protection Plan (APP). iPhone and most iPod devices that were built after 2006 have built-in Liquid Contact Indicators that will show whether the device has been in contact with water or a liquid containing water.

That’s the bad news – and the fact that Apple have been putting liquid Contact Indicators on their products since 2006 shows that a lot of people have suffered from the problem of liquid damage. So don’t feel too bad if it happens to you, it’s clearly a common problem. The good news is that for most people, SimplyFixIt have a really good record of reviving an iPhone after there has been damage caused by liquid. There are some websites who claim to be able to fix all liquid damaged phones, so you’re probably wondering why we’re not making the same claim.

We can't fix every water damaged iPhone :(

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to fix every liquid damaged phone. We wish that we could, but the problem with liquid is that unless it’s pure water, it normally has minerals or some other product dissolved in the liquid, such as sugar, which will be left on the electronic boards inside the phone and will continue to cause damage long after the phone is dried.

Doesn’t rice fix liquid damaged iPhones?

That’s one of the problems with rice. We’ve all heard the tales of people putting their iPhone into a bowl of rice and a few days later it starts up. But the rice is doing nothing there except possibly drying the phone out a bit faster (and I don’t actually think that’s true). Much more likely is that grains of rice are making their way into the charging port or the headphone jack (pre-iPhone 7) and will cause damge inside the phone. So forget rice. As a president once said, that’s fake news.

What should I do?

If your iPhone is wet, do not try to turn it on. Not even to check if it still works. This is a good rule for anything electronic. If it’s wet, unplug it from the power and remove any batteries if possible. The problem is that with most modern smartphones, especially iPhones, it’s not possible to remove the battery. That is why it is very important to take your wet iPhone to a repair centre as quickly as possible. One of the first things we will do is unplug the battery, preventing any more electricity from flowing through the circuitry.

Things to do right away

Take your device out of the liquid.

Turn it off. Press and hold the sleep/wake button and "slide to power off".

If your device turned off after it was dropped into the liquid, don’t turn it back on. Not even to test if it’s working.

Remove any cables that were plugged into the iPhone, especially any charging cables.

With a clean cloth, or tower, try and dry the outside of the iPhone. Just wipe the front, back and sides of the phone to remove any excess liquid.

Give your iPhone a gentle shake to remove any liquid from the charging port, speakers and microphone. Don’t shake it too vigourously. Wipe the Home button, mute button, and volume buttons to ensure that they are dry.

What not to do

Don’t use the hair dryer to dry your iPhone. It can cause the damage to iPhone components.

Do not try to charge your iPhone.

Do not attach any accessories.

Don’t use your iPhone right away.

Here's the crunch. If you leave your iPhone to dry naturally for a few days, at least 3, but probably 5, it may well work again when you try to power it on. But if the liquid that got into the iPhone had sugar (could be tea, coffee, wine, Irn Bru or even diet coke) then most likely this sugar is currently eating away at the electronics. This corrosion will cause issues in the future, and the only way to prevent this is to remove those deposits from inside the iPhone.

The other potential problem is that time is of the essence when it comes to fixing liquid damaged iPhones. If the iPhone doesn't respond after the 5 days, this is time that could have been very important to a repair. SimplyFixit offer a No-Fix, No-Fee service when it comes to liquid damaged iPhones, so there really isn't any reason not to go directly to your nearest SimplyFixIt repair centre and get your iPhone looked at by Apple Certified Technicians.